Positive Medicine Disrupting the Future of Medical Practice

When Ivan Illich published Medical Nemesis in 1975, he offered a withering critique of the medical profession and the medical model. 'The medical establishment has become a major threat to health,' he said. Nearly half a century has elapsed since then, and things have got worse. In the UK, only 5 per cent of the health budget is spent on prevention. The system is so strained that the rule is often 'one problem per consultation'. Disease management takes precedence over disease prevention, and a wider perspective on health and wellbeing is largely absent. At least once a month, one third of GPs consider leaving the profession. Patients are referred to secondary care simply because primary care cannot cope. But doctors want to practise differently. People also want more. The global health and wellness industry has stepped into the gap. It offers more holistic and whole-person approach that people seek. And it's big business. It is now estimated to be worth $4.2 trillion per annum. In this book, David Beaumont proposes a better approach. The current healthcare system is a deficit model. It attempts to address and correct the absence of health, so it is therefore more correctly termed a disease-care system. Positive medicine is an abundance model. It aims not only to help people manage illness and disease, but to enhance their health. Although this book is very specifically about doctors and patients, it will resonate with all healthcare professionals.

David Beaumont trained as a general practitioner in the UK in the 1980s, and was a partner in a busy rural general practice before undertaking training in occupational medicine. He was Chair of the Yorkshire Group of the Society of Occupational Medicine for several years in the 1990s and early 2000s, serving on the SOM Executive and SOM Council. After moving to New Zealand, he took on leadership roles in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, including Board Director (2014-16) and Congress Lead Fellow 2018-19, in which capacity he chaired the organising committee for the scientific programme of RACP's annual Congress. From 2014-16 he was President of AFOEM, the Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. He chaired the Employment and Poverty Reference Group of AFOEM in 2018-19. In 2007, he was appointed Medical Director and CEO of Fit for Work Ltd, leading a team of 100 multidisciplinary rehabilitation and occupational health professionals. He now runs a small consulting practice specialising in complex cases and facilitating a way forward to enable sustainable return to work. He writes books on aspects of positive medicine to assist people to take control of their lives and their health.